Shell characters and taxonomy of Latirus and related fasciolariid groups

Abstract

The neogastropod family Fasciolariidae contains a complex of genera related to LatirusMontfort, 1810, many of which have traits unusual for the family. In a taxonomic revision of some of these genera, based on shell characters, we restrict Latirus to a mainly Indo-West Pacific group of Pliocene to Recent species, which closely resemble the middle Miocene to Recent pantropical genus HemipolygonaRovereto, 1899. Hemipolygona stenomphalus (Habe & Kosuge, 1966) is synonymized with H. recurvirostris (Schubert & Wagner, 1829). LathyropsisOostingh, 1939, based on a small Pliocene species from Indonesia, is here tentatively subsumed under PolygonaSchumacher, 1817. The latter genus, ranging from the late Oligocene to Recent, occurs mainly in the New World and eastern Atlantic, and contains at least two species groups centered on P. infundibulumSchumacher, 1817 (type of genus) and P. angulatus (Röding, 1798). Taxa assigned by many authors to LatirulusCossmann, 1889, are here reassigned to the new genus Turrilatirus (type species: Voluta turritaGmelin, 1791), from the Pliocene to Recent of the Indo-West Pacific. Latirulus is restricted to Eocene species. We assign various early Miocene to Recent species from the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific to the new genus Pustulatirus (type species: Latirus mediamericanus, Hertlein & Strong, 1951a). Taxa formerly assigned to Latirus but here removed from Fasciolariidae include Latirus ewekoroensisAdegoke, 1977; the Eocene RusculaCasey, 1904; Lathyrus granifer and L. compactilis, both of Martin, 1931; Latirus kirbyiClark, 1938; Latirus tortilis var. nanafaliusHarris, 1899; and Latirus quercotillaensisOlsson, 1931.